In the process of shipping one or more articles, products or other articles in a container, such as a cardboard box, from one location to another, a packer typically places some type of dunnage material in the shipping container along with the article or articles to be shipped. The dunnage material partially or completely fills the empty space or void around the one or more articles in the container to prevent or minimize any shifting of the articles in the container and/or to provide cushioning for the articles in the container during the shipping process. Some commonly used dunnage materials are plastic foam peanuts, plastic bubble pack, air bags and converted paper dunnage material.
To use storage space more efficiently, a dunnage conversion machine can be used to convert a compact supply of stock material, such as a roll or stack of paper, into a lower density dunnage material as the dunnage material is needed by the packer. These dunnage-on-demand conversion machines typically include one or more motors for driving a conversion assembly and/or a cutting assembly. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,589 discloses an exemplary dunnage conversion machine that can quickly convert a continuous sheet of paper into a crumpled strip of void-fill dunnage material.
These powered dunnage converters are well suited for high or medium volume applications. They also can be used for low volume applications where a small amount of dunnage is needed from time-to-time, but usually the cost is too high. The powered converters also are somewhat bulky and occasionally require maintenance or repair. Consequently, low volume applications have been serviced by other types of dunnage, such as plastic foam peanuts and manually crumpled newspaper. Plastic foam peanuts are messy and occupy the same volume when being stored as when being used. Crumpled newspaper also is messy and requires the packer to manually crumple the newspaper.
Another apparatus for crumpling and dispensing dunnage is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,903. This apparatus includes a box-like housing holding a frame. The frame has a pair of inclined side walls for guiding sheet paper from a roll of paper through a reduced dimension corrugated-shaped opening that is generally aligned with an opening in the housing. A problem with such an apparatus is that the reduced width opening is in a frame member that forms a transversely extending shelf surrounding the opening. The paper can catch on this shelf as the paper is being pulled through the opening and can potentially cause undesirable tearing of the paper. Another perceived disadvantage is that portions of the crumpled paper cannot be efficiently and effectively separated in an easy manner. Still another disadvantage is replacement of the roll of paper is a relatively involved task, requiring disassembly of the housing and inner frame. Yet another drawback is the relatively large bulky size of the apparatus when compared to the supply of paper contained therein—that is, the apparatus contains a substantial amount of empty space within the box-like housing.